Monday, March 8, 2010

NOT QUITE ONE SUMMER OF LOVE

I remember about 3 months back, my ex-colleague and I were talking about this movie and how we anticipated it. I don't know why but "500 Days of Summer" seems like one good movie though the title in itself basically tells you that it is a love story. Again, I kinda dread love stories but this one seemed decent. Besides, it stars Zooey Deschanel and co-stars my favourite Matthew Gray Gubler. And the lead actor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not bad looking either.

But it was not until now that I really have the mood to sit through this 90-minute love fest. Haha. To be honest, the movie has its plus points though the whole movie, in my own personal opinion, is really not one that is especially engaging and nice though the general reviews for this movie were good.

Okay, the posters are kinda cool!

I'll tell you what I love, like REALLY LOVE about this movie. It is the way it makes some of its scene transitions. You see very different techniques incorporated into the movie too. There is one particular scene in which we see the lead, Tom actually running down the staircase, and then into the roads when he realized that Summer has been engaged to another man. The roads and building then all fades into this drawing (kinda like Tom's art because he loves to draw) and the drawing gives a sad, lonely impression, kinda indicative of how Tom is feeling at that time.

Another cool video technique used in the movie is when they used split screens to present the reality and expectations, instead of the traditional blur screen to show imaginations, this is like a new technique to present the idea of the character imagining things.

The storyline is, well, you can't say that it's a typical love story but then again, it's really just another story. It's about how this guy, who has always believed in destiny and fate thought he has found the one in Summer (Zooey Deschanel). However, Summer isn't the kinda girl who really believe in love; she was one girl who has been scarred by her parents' divorce and so she never really wanted a serious relationship.

However, they began dating some time soon. While Tom continues to fall madly in love with Summer, Summer on the other hand did not. When she call off the relationship, Tom was of course devastated and had to learn how to get his life back together again. At the end of the movie, both characters learned a lesson from each other. The boy who once believed in love and destiny just doesn't believe in miracles anymore whereas the girl who doesn't believe in love realized that everything is destined and fated. The end sees how two people's perspectives change due to different things that happened in their lives. In the end, Summer married another guy, whom she felt she was fated to meet and she found love in that relationship although previously, she never believed in it. Tom on the other hand opened his mind above love; that sometimes, there are people out there who are meant for him that he simply didn't see because he was too obsessed with that single person that he refuses to see other things that is going on in life for him.

I'm also not sure if I like the technique used to carry out the timeline. The movie scenes are basically scattered all over the place, within the 500 days. It is creative but I can't help but feel that it was messily carried out. But there were one or two really sweet scenes in the movie, like how they played couple when they were at IKEA. I thought that was super cool and sweet haha.

Overall, the movie is about love though the narrator had said that it is not a love story. Oh well, it is not a love story between the two leads, but it is definitely a movie on love. Though Matthew Gray Gubler's character Paul doesn't get much screen time, he had presented one of the best quotes in the movie.

Paul was describing the girl of his dreams and then he said this"

"Robin is better than the girl of my dreams. She's real."

That's so sweet. I guess it's true that we all have in mind what we want our ideal partner to be but in the end, the person that we truly love is someone that is there for us, that special someone that makes use feel happy, someone real.

This movie has won a string of awards although I'm not exactly a fan of it. I'm sure some of you seek a different standpoint and disagree with me. It's actually under the comedy category; I wouldn't say that it doesn't contain any funny elements but then again, it really wasn't that funny to be honest. Perhaps I've lost my sense of humour? No?...